WWHI? Oakleaf Bearers Battle
by Pendragon.P a s s i o n
Summary: ON HOLD! SO SORRY! REVISED AND REDONE! Horace relayed the command. "Don't stop, keep shooting men! Individual shots!" Then, "Will, you got hit," it was obvious Horace was panicking. RRR plz. relax.read.review.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello my loverliis. Being holidays I am updating my fanfics and taking advantage of the free time I have...and lemme just say I am so sorry. Its been almost a year, a whole freaking year since I updated this fic! So yeah, freaken sorry! Alrightty. So coming to this fic I got stuck and stuff it, because its been so long since I updated my...style, for want of a better word, of writing has changed over the year and Im finding it super hard to just carry on with this so this chapter has been redone, only with minor differences but different enough so I can work with it...aannd if that made sense to you congrats. so here it is, again. WWHI? Oakleaf Bearers Battle.**

**ENJOY!..**

**Chapter One - Will Goes Down**

Now he decided that they were accustomed to seeing him appearing to the right side of the big shield. He selected four arrows and stepped to his left, shooting as he came clear. Two more saddles emptied and he darted back into cover again. The change in sides had worked for him. Not a single arrow had come near him in reply.  
He stepped left again, snapped off another shot.

And then there was a feeling, brief, too brief to be able to act on it. Something was not right. Something was about to happen, something bad. Before he could do a thing, Will felt something in his shoulder, then excruciating pain. He cried out and fell.

Horace saw it happen from his safe position behind the shield. Will had switched sides, surprising the _Kaijin_ at first but all it took was one quick-recovering man and Will was down. Most of the remaining men saw their leader fall and stopped with fear. Horace dropped to his friend's side.

"Keep the men shooting!" Will gasped, his mind still on the battle.

Horace relayed the command, then turned his attention back to his fallen friend. "Will, you got hit!" It was obvious the warrior was panicking. "Will, I don't know what to do." Horace looked around hurriedly, searching out anything that could help him. "Evanlyn!" he called.

"I'm here," a soft voice came from behind him. The girl had seen Will go down and had come up from her safe spot to help straight away.

"What do we do?" Horace almost pleaded.

On the inside the girl was panicking but she knew she needed to appear calm and get Horace doing something helpful. She couldn't blame him, Will was his best friend,he had a right to panic. Evanlyn placed a hand on Horace's shoulder to calm him. "We need Halt," she stated. "Go and get Halt, bring hom here urgently. I don't know how much time Will has."

The young warrior nodded vigorously then left.

Evanlyn turned back to Will who was losing blood quickly. He was pale and a thin layer of sweat was glistening on his forehead. She looked him over; the arrow had hit his left shoulder. His shoulder was good, the chances of long term damage with a shoulder wound were not too high. The left was not so good however; the heart was on the left side, the arrow could have struck something vital. And getting hit altogether was not great, he could bleed out. Back in Araluen she had been taught how to care for some injuries but nothing on this scale, after all, who would expect the Crown Princess of Araluen to be in a situation such as this? The blood was gushing. "Will!" she said desperately. "Can you hear me?"

Will's glazed eyes looked at Evanlyn and she could tell he was out of it. His eyes were slightly glazed and unfocused.

At the moment the best thing she could do was to stop the blood flow. She knew removing the arrow would only make him bleed out faster and that is something she did not want to happen. She ripped off her scarf that she'd been wearing to keep some of the cold out, and bundled it up.

"This is going to hurt Will, sorry."

Evanlyn situated the scarf on his wound, around the arrow na dapplied pressure. She recieved a sharp intake of breath from her patient, then a groan and silence. "Sorry," she whispered, even though he was now in a peaceful abyss of unconsciousness. She didn't know how long it had been but too long for her liking. A few minutes maybe? Being realistic Horace would still take a while, getting across the other side of the battlefield, finding Halt within the chaos and bringing him back. It could take a while, all she could do was try and keep Will breathing.

* * *

Horace ran as fast as he could. The Temujai still hadn't managed to entirely break through the Skandian's line so the biggest danger for him was tripping over some Skandian's big foot, which he did.

As he ran Horace wove his way through the lines of Skandians, darting in and out between them and once, his sharp reflexes were a little too slow as one of the giants stepped backwards. He hit the ground hard but jumped straight back up, barely noticing the grazes on his hands or cut down his leg. There was no time to notice, he had one mission: find Halt. Get Halt. Help Will.

Finally, when his breathing was erratic and his lungs hurt with each deep breath Horace sighted who he was looking for.

* * *

First Halt just _felt_ something was wrong in his gut. Then Will's archers, who had been doing extremely well with their volleys of arrows, stopped. Arrows began to fly randomly, with no real direction or target. They were doing individual shots and that fact alone told Halt that something had gone wrong. Will wouldn't stop the men shooting group shots when they were so crucial to winning the battle, especially this early. Then Halt's heart skipped a beat. Through all the noise and commotion of the battle his ears picked out a voice calling his name. He turned around.

Horace.

The young warrior was running towards him screaming his name. Halt turned to Ragnak, beside him. "This could be bad," he stated simply. He turned back to where Horace was running to him to see him just arriving.

"It's Will!" Horace said between desperate gasps of air. "He's...he's been hit, arrow through the shoulder."

A cruel, cold hand crutched his heart, freezin the blood in his veins instantly.

The old Ranger turned to Ragnak, "Stick to the plan, do not lose control. I will be back as soon as I can."

The Skandian Oberjarl nodded once. "Keep him alive Ranger, I quite like that kid."

Halt didn't bother asking questions and Horace didn't bother giving him information, he simply led the way. Anything that Halt needed to know he would find out as soon as they got back.

* * *

Evanlyn was seriously stressing out. Her scarf eventually became so drenched in blood that she was forced to shed her cloak as well. Will had re-entered the conscious world a little while ago and was now muttering randomly under his breath. She doubted if he had any idea what was going on at all.

Thankfully it was not much longer until Horace came back, Halt trailing close behind.

The Ranger instantly dropped to his knees, setting his bow down next to him.

"Halt," she huffed, relieved.

Halt didn't bother with a greeting, too much was at stake. "Has his condition changed?"

Evanlyn nodded, "He lost consciousness not long after getting hit but he came back round a while ago. He's been delusional and muttering since. I've kept pressure on the wound, but I didn't know what else to do."

"It's ok, you've done well," he praised. " You've been helping Will out with training the archers, would you and Horace be able to handle directing them?"

Panic flashed in the girl's eyes. "Uh, I don't..."

"Evanlyn, you can do this. You know the ranges and positions. You'll be fine, just keep the archers going. But if anything goes wrong you and Horace get yourselves out. Not a single Araluan is dying today, no one. Understand?"

Evanlyn nodded.

With the archers sorted Halt turned back to Will. He quickly wrapped Evanlyn's cloak around Will's shoulder in a way to decrease the bleeding as much as possible and so it would stay in place by itself. Then he slung his bow over his shoulder, picked up his apprentice, minding the arrow, and as gently as he could he ran.

Well back, behind the Skandian lines there was an infirmary of sorts for the wounded Skandian soldiers. Most of the Skandian women were there, willing to help, in some way or another, rid their land of the Temujai. So early in the battle there would be practically no wounded men there, not that it made a difference. Will was hurt. He needed help and that was the only place he was going to recieve it.

The boy whimpered as he was jostled around in Halt's arms. "Sorry, Will," the older Ranger whispered.

Halt only hoped he would make it there in time to save Will.

* * *

**as I said before. not TOO different but enough so that I can make it work for me now. PLEASE review! I really do live off my reviews! chapter 2 is well on the way but it can be up a lot quicker with a few reviews! **

**luv u all..**

**passion.**


	2. Chapter 2

**first - Im terribly sorry for any typos and grammatical errors and such in this chappie. I do pride myself on spelling and grammar a lot but usually I type my stories up in Word just in case I miss anything BUT my laptop is being super gay and not letting me open Word so Im stuck using the little window on the site. so if you find any please do tell.  
second - quick update, w00t! :D its about the quickest Ive ever updated I think..yay!  
third - as always thank you a HEAP to my loverliis who review!  
and fourth - as always please do**

**ENJOY!..**

**Chapter Two - Tora**

It was like a large pavilion. Beds and blankets were laid out and buckets of fresh water were everywhere in preparation for the inevitable wounded that were to come. It was all shaded and under cover. Women Skandians and the very old were all there, most busy doing one thing or another, but apart from them the place was relatively empty when Halt arrived.

He rushed in, Will's head hanging down, lying limply on his shoulder, small whimpers and moans were the most he could muster to display his pain. Halt's front was stained with too much of his young friend's blood. The arrow protruded grotesquely from Will's shoulder.

"I need a healer!" Halt screamed as he gently placed Will on the closest bed. "Anyone with any skill at all, now!" His voice wasn't ridden with panic, but harsh and in control. Commanding, as he knew it had to be. He couldn't, no, he _wouldn't_ panic, not now when Will needed him most. Panic fogged the mind, influenced mistake making decisions, and a mistake was the last thing he needed. So he spoke calmy, loud and harsh, but calm.

A woman rushed over. She didn't waste time asking pointless questions like 'How did this happen?' she simply went straight into it, and Halt decided he liked her.

She spoke the Common Tongue and Halt realised that she probably hadn't understood a word of what he'd said, as he spoke it in Araluan.

"Go fetch me one of the buckets of water and some salve and fresh cloth from the table over there," she pointed the direction. "Get more water boiling on the fire over there and leave your knife with me."

Halt didn't bother asking why or if she even knew what she was doing, it was obvious she did. He drew his saxe knife and handed it to the woman then hurried to do as he was told. There was a table stocked with fresh, clean cloth and bowls of some sort of paste in a corner, near where the buckets of water were grouped. He grabbed a handful of cloth, a bowl of salve then scooped up a bucket and made his way back. He had time to notice the arrow had been cut short, he supposed so it would not get in the way, then he went to the fire and put water to boil.

"Soak some of the cloth in that bucket," she said when Halt reuturned with the boiling water. He nodded once and did as she commanded. "The arrow needs to be taken out." Though she spoke the Common Tongue her speech was heavily accented and Halt had to concentrate to understand her. Afterwards he would look back and notice how good the woman was at what she did. She asked no pointless questions, she decisively told what needed to be done so as not to recieve any pointless questions and she was all round...very Halt-like. And he liked that.

"If I simply pull it out it the edges of the arrowhead will cause even more damage to the tendons. The arrow has almost gone all the way through, less damage will be cause if it is pushed through the rest of the way. You need to hold him up, and still, keep him _very _still, while I push it through. If he moves it will only cause more pain and damage."

Halt nodded and moved to do as he was told. He lifted Will's upper body and situated himself behind the boy. He let him rest back on his chest, though he made sure there was room between him and Will's left shoulder. Halt unwrapped Evanlyn's cloak and chucked it carelessly onto the ground, then, with the woman's help he stripped his apprentice's shirt and it followed the cloak. The woman used some cloth to mop up as much blood as she could so she could better see what she was doing - all the while Will was grunting and moaning and wincing away from the pain, his brow was sweating and creased.

The woman scooped a fingerful of the salve and applied it all around the wound, "It will help numb the pain," she explained. As her hand neared Will he recoiled and almost thrashed to get away. Halt held him firm; he did wonder what induced Will's reaction but there was no time to ask.

"We must work quickly," the woman said, as if reading Halt's thoughts. "Hold him tight. Ready? And..."

She jabbed her palm against the stump of the arrow. A sickening sound of muscle being torn through and skin being ripped open accompanied the howl of pure agony resounding from Will's tight lips. He struggled for a moment, then his eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped.

Halt winced at the fleshy, moist sound as he pulled the arrow out completely. The woman handed him the hot soaked cloth and he put pressure on Will's new wound and at her say so, his first wound to.

"Do not move, I will be right back."

Within moments of her disappearance she was back with a thick needle and threads. Halt wiped away all the blood he could from the front wound then looked away as the woman sewed it up; he just didn't have the stomach to watch, not when it was happening to Will. After she smeared on more salve Halt leaned Will forward so she could repeat the process. She told Halt to lay him down, on his right side then she gently laid more clean, hot soaked cloth around his shoulder, on both wounds.

"The heat will help with infection if nothing else," she stated. "From what I saw nothing vital was hit and now he's sewn up bleeding out won't be a problem. As long as infection stays away he will be fine."

Halt nodded, "I can't thank you enough," he said.

"There's no need to thank me, you are helping us keep our country, it is I who should be thanking you."

A silent understanding of gratitude was exchanged between the two, then Halt broke the silence. "I'm Halt." He would have help out a hand but both were bloody.

"Tora," she replied. "You can wash your hands in that bucket," she pointed to the one of fresh water he had brought over before. "I will watch over your boy and take care of him. I think the battle needs you."

Halt looked around for the first time and noticed the first wounded were coming in. She's right, he thought, and as reluctant as he was to leave his apprentice he knew he would be safe without him, the battle _did_ need him.

Before Halt left he collected his discarded bow from the ground and told Tora that his apprentice's name was Will.

* * *

**I know, I know, it is short but its 2:50am and I was watching Argentina V Germany in the World Cup (GO GERMANY! they won 4-0. though I did feel sorry for Argentina gettong flogged like that, I fully expected Maradona to cry!) and now Tour de France is on and Paraguay V Spain is on at 4am (I hope Spain win!) and Im just finished my fourth cup of coffee for this evening/morning whatever and I'm sleeping at a friends tonight so I won't be home for a day or so and yeah. So I updated. so PLEASE review! Id love to have around 10 reviews by the time I get back from my friends place! plus its my birthday in 3 days so if telling you that makes you review then, you know, review! as always I really do**

**luv u all..**

**passion.**


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